Jeremy Renner Offered Lead Role in ‘Bourne Legacy’

The Hurt Locker star is apparently Tony Gilroy's second choice, but the first offered the role.

After an initial casting call that consisted of so many actors that it was hardly worth announcing, it seems that Tony Gilroy's upcoming Bourne Legacy, the fourth film in the hit franchise, has finally made an offer to… Jeremy Renner, whose name wasn't even on the list. Huh. Go figure.

Actually, according to The Latino Review, Renner was not Gilroy's first choice for the lead role, which is reportedly not Jason Bourne. Gilroy was more interested in casting Sucker Punch's Oscar Isaac, but Universal Pictures reportedly 'did not approve of' the actor, perhaps owing to the relative unpopularity of Zack Snyder's film. So reported The Latino Review, at any rate.

Jeremy Renner's been at the top of everyone's casting list since he got his first Oscar nomination for Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, and his second nomination for The Town certainly didn't hurt either. He's a great actor, we're looking forward to seeing him in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and, of course, The Avengers, but it might not be a good idea to oversaturate the market with his face, particularly in a bunch of similar special ops-related roles.

Crave Online will return with more Bourne Legacy news as long as it treads in a stoney fashion.